Bartzokas: «It takes extra effort to win these games»

In the postgame Press-Conference following the loss to Panathinaikos at the OAKA, Olympiacos' coach, Giorgos Bartzokas, talked about the reasons for the team's defeat.

"Congratulations to Panathinaikos for the win, they were more determined, more aggressive on the ball, in crucial moments of the game. They punished our mistakes in the transition, we received quite a lot of points in the open court because we were executing poorly in offense... We had to be better in key areas of the game, if we wanted to win here and of course we needed from key players to play better on both ends of the court, so that we could have controlled the game. When we got ahead, we mismanaged the situation. We lost a defensive rebound, we gave free-throws... we had to make better decisions, both offensive and defensive. We gave them two threes after poor reaction in our defense and that gave Panathinaikos confidence, leading them to a fair victory".

Asked whether the team hed felt complacent due to the injuries Panathinaikos was facing and whether there is any problem with Evan Fournier, he said that: "No to both questions. Panathinaikos was coming from two lost games and came into this one very determined, we maybe had been kind of 'spoilt'. To win these games, you need to put in extra effort in all plays, to dive for the ball, to go for the rebounds. There is nothing wrong with Fournier, he wasn't playing well and that's why he played less minutes".

Asked about the many match ups with Panathinaikos in one season, he replied: "When you get to play more than 10 times, it unfortunately becomes a habit. However, these games always carry a certain importance and clout, but I would say this game has not decided any titles... As last year shows us, everyone can make a break and tonight, should we had played a close to our standards, we would have had serious chances at winning. The games are too many, the players are not robots and of course, the shape your opponent is is matters".